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Comedy Nights Bachao is undergoing a change in format and will be on the lines of Comedy Circus
Chaya Unnikrishnan (DNA; September 13, 2016)

Enlarge ImageThe tug-of-war between Comedy Nights Live and The Kapil Sharma Show is finally coming to an end. CNL, which took over the slot of Comedy Nights With Kapil, is shutting down and in its place will be Comedy Nights Bachao, albeit in a completely new format. It will do away with the ‘roast’ and will be on the lines of Comedy Circus. Mona Singh has been roped in as the host of the show that will go on air from the 25th of this month. Krushna Abhishek and Bharti Singh, who were the hosts earlier, will now be performing skits and gags in the show. In fact, they are the only two actors who have been retained in the revamped show.

A bunch of new people like Ssharad Malhotra, Nia Sharma, Aditi Bhatia, Sumeet Vyas and Gujarati stand-up comedian Mayank will be a part of the show now, which they will call CNB Season 2. Says Krushna, “The show will now be completely positive. Some film stars were not comfortable with the earlier format and stayed away. Akshay Kumar did not come on our show to promote Rustom. We want him to come now. Getting Amitabh Bachchan on the show will be a big thing for us.” Ask him why Bharti and he are not hosting CNB 2 and he says, “We have been hosting for a year and wanted a change. Mona and I have co-hosted Entertainment Ke Liye Kuch Bhi Karega and we know each other. Besides, she is a good host.”

As for CNL’s shutting down. Krushna says, “Its format was similar to Kapil’s show and he has a mastery over it. He has been doing it for the last two-three years, whereas we are strong in CNB. For one year, we are consistently getting good ratings for the show, so we decided to concentrate on that. Also, doing two shows simultaneously is very difficult, still we managed Live for eight months along with Bachao, which I think is a big feat. But now, we would rather perfect one. Even if Kapil is given two shows at the same time, he will find it difficult.”

The first episode of Bachao 2 will have Prabhu Dheva, Sonu Sood and Hans Raj Hans as guests. They will be promoting their upcoming film Tutak Tutak Tutiya.